Syracuse is definitely beatable but will need to play very smart. I know that archie wants to play inside out but kavs struggled yesterday when osu helped inside. Need a little inside presense and smart passing from the bigs. And the outside shots need to fall.

We need to play inside out, but that means get the ball to Kav and get quick kickouts to the open man. He may have trouble getting any shots off, and he cannot be slow in his kickouts and decisions. If we do not get the ball inside, Cuse will push the zone out and we will get no open looks. We have got to keep the floor spread and constantly look to the weak side for shots.

Does any one recall in mid seventies,(We were still an independent) that Syracuse came in and played at the Arena. They had their celebrated "Louie (Orr?) and (Sam) Bowie" show, were very highly regarded, and dropped one to the home team Flyers ? I remember the game, but no other particulars, Any help might shake loose some of worn out brain cells and would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Over the years Pitt has had much success against the Syracuse zone. One of the key ways they attack it is by getting the ball to the high post and having baseline cutters look for quick, very quick, bounce passes from the high post. That requires a good passing big man and athletic finishers. I think we have the finishers, not sure about the good passing big. If you can get some hoops in this manner it would sure help to open up the 3 pt game.

I'm thinking a key guy today will be KP. Cooney got right against WMU after a long shooting slump, and I'm willing to bet Archie plays KP more than usual to give him fits all night. Hopefully if he does get lots of minutes, he doesn't feel the need to do too much on offense. Just know he's in the game to play lockdown D, and fuel the fastbreak offense.

For the first game the chip on the shoulder was "A10 doesn't deserve 6 bids" and "OSU will never play us". However, in the game against Syracuse we need to have a chip on our shoulder. This game reminds me a lot of the Kansas-UD game 5 years ago. Cheers for beating WVU(and Huggins), but nothing about finding that mental edge or chip on our shoulder against Kansas, ironically on March 22. Let's find a chip for the team and get us into the Sweet 16 so we can beat Kansas as revenge for our early exit in 2009.

Gotta keep getting out in transition when we can. Defense is playing great. In the half-court it's going to come down to Pierre and Pollard hitting shots when they get the ball at the free throw line, it's there every time